


Nine Men's Morris

by Servena



Series: BoB Psychiatry AU [1]
Category: Band of Brothers
Genre: Alternate Universe - Mental Institution, Friendship, Gen, Hopeful Ending, Mental Health Issues, Mental Institutions, Mute!Eugene Roe, Muteness, POV Outsider, Recovery
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-13
Updated: 2018-12-13
Packaged: 2019-09-17 14:16:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 892
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16976142
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Servena/pseuds/Servena
Summary: Renée loved her job, she really did. Or rather, she loved the idea of her job, the idea of helping people who could no longer help themselves.





	Nine Men's Morris

Renée loved her job, she really did. Or rather, she loved the idea of her job, the idea of helping people who could no longer help themselves, the ones who came here because they were drowning in their depression or hearing voices or were so scared all the time that they could no longer leave their house. She loved doing the things that would help these people get better.

In practice she hated her job, she hated it a lot of times. She hated some of her colleagues who didn’t have enough empathy to take care of a hamster let alone a mentally ill patient, she hated all the forms she had to fill out and the fights with the insurance companies to get the money to help their patients get better, but most of all she hated that she didn’t have enough time to do her job, her real job, the job she had wanted to do – helping people. Not just handing out drugs or tying someone to a bed to keep them from killing themselves, but talking to them, taking the time to understand them.

The system was broken, everybody knew it. It made them focus on the wrong kind of things, and it led to people falling through the cracks, some more than others.

Eugene was one of them. He was what her colleagues would call ‘an easy one’ since he didn’t cause any trouble and wasn’t on suicide watch. He didn’t run away and he didn’t fight with the other patients. In the end, you didn’t have to keep an eye on him because he didn’t do any of the things that required immediate attention.

He was just quiet. He hadn’t spoken a single word since he had arrived, and he tried to keep away from other people as much as possible. And every time Renée looked at him, it broke her heart. Because she knew, just knew that if anyone could just afford the time to lure him out of his shell, one small step after the other, he could become better, he had a real chance to get out of here. And she tried, she really tried to give him attention when she had a minute to spare, but it just wasn’t enough because there was always something more important happening, always someone yelling or throwing their food or setting their bed on fire.

“I’m sorry”, she said in one of those rare moments, “I’m sorry.” He just looked at her with those dark eyes of his and it made her want to cry.

So when she walked into the common room one afternoon to find Eugene sitting at a table in the corner with one of the new patients she recognized as Babe Heffron she had to look twice before she believed her own eyes. There was a nine men’s morris board between them and they were each moving their repective pieces after a moment of thought, Babe the white and Eugene the black ones.

“How did that happen?” she asked one of her colleagues who was just preparing the meds for some patients.

“What?” She looked up and followed Renée’s gaze to the corner. “Oh, that. Don’t ask me, I didn’t do anything.”

“Me neither”, Renée mumbled. She fought the urge to walk over to investigate, instead motioning away her colleague with a “Let me do this for you” and took over the sorting of the pills. This way she could throw a glance over her shoulder from time to time.

They didn’t talk. Or rather, Eugene didn’t talk, as she had expected. Babe on the other hand seemed to talk quite a lot, and he didn’t seem to be bothered that he wasn’t getting any replies.

Eugene was sitting on the couch with his back against the wall and his feet pulled up so he could wrap his arms around his knees whenever he wasn’t moving a piece. He didn’t seem to be entirely comfortable with the situation, she could tell as much, but he wasn’t running away from it either. That was massive progress, and Renée had no idea when that had happened.

She took the chance to ask Babe as he passed her a few hours later on his way to dinner. “How did you do that?”

He just looked at her with confusion. “What?”

She nodded in the direction of Eugene who had stopped a few feet away, obviously waiting for him.

“I didn’t do anything”, Babe said. And at her inquiring gaze he added: “Well, my momma always says I talk enough for two!” His grin was slightly sheepish and she thought about how nice it was to see him smile again. When he had arrived last week consumed by guilt over the death of a close friend, she had expected him to take longer to get himself back onto his feet (let alone someone else), but clearly she had underestimated him.

Without waiting for her to say anything else, Babe turned to Eugene and said: “Come on, Gene, let’s check what kind of undefined slop we’ll have for dinner.” She watched as Eugene followed him, still a safe distance apart, but clearly walking with him, until they disappeared around a corner.

She couldn’t remember the last time she had been smiling at her job, but she was now.


End file.
